MS Wants Laws To Block Products Made By Software Pirates

kaptink writes with this quote from Groklaw: “Microsoft seems to be trying to get its own personal unfair competition laws passed state by state, so it can sue US companies who get parts from overseas companies who used pirated Microsoft software anywhere in their business. The laws allow Microsoft to block the US company from selling the finished product in the state and compel them to pay damages for what the overseas supplier did. So if a company overseas uses a pirated version of Excel, let’s say, keeping track of how many parts it has shipped or whatever, and then sends some parts to General Motors or any large company to incorporate into the finished product, Microsoft can sue not the overseas supplier but General Motors, for unfair competition. So can the state’s Attorney General. I kid you not. For piracy that was done by someone else, overseas. The product could be T shirts. It doesn’t matter what it is, so long as it’s manufactured with contributions from an overseas supplier, like in China, who didn’t pay Microsoft for software that it uses somewhere in the business. It’s the US company that has to pay damages, not the overseas supplier.”